Racism Explained to My Daughter

the book begins with an essay by tahar ben jelloun, but also includes responses to that essay by David Mura, Patricia Williams and others. I have my disagreements with the Ben Jelloun essay, but those are addressed by other writers in the book. In my opinion, the best essay of the bunch is by David Mura, responding to and critiquing the Ben Jelloun essay. The essays are supposed to make you think, to challenge your way of viewing the world. They're supposed to make you a little uncomfortable-there's nothing "comfortable" about race and racism. What's particularly fascinating about this little book is its accessibility and readability. it's blissfully free of much of the jargon that is often found in books today. As parents, we all face this problem, how to explain racism to our children without perpetuating it, without damaging our children's psyches, without crushing their souls. While this book didn't give me all the answers, it did help me to think through how to address this issue with my four year old and her teachers. In fact, I think I'll give this book to her teachers as a gift. I'd like to stimulate their thinking on this issue as well. I highly recommend it.

I purchased this book for a diversity in education class and actually quite enjoyed it. Jelloun's prose is almost lyrical and a pleasure to read, and the other authors complemented his writing well.

Another review on here rated this book as 1 star. Maybe that person should write their own book on racism. I believe the person who made this rating failed to see the perfect summation this book provides for parents who are struggling with a way to explain racism to their children. There are always more reasons, more explanation, and more views to be given, but in the big picture, this book hits all the bases. I think it does convey the message that any person, any color, any religion, can be racist.

Everyone must read this book. Especially people working with children, families and each other.

Tahar Ben Jelloun (his daughter and her friends) have done us a great service by asking and answering seemingly simple questions about the issue of racism. The French context helps Americans better understand the universality of racism and his responses help all understand the stupidity of racism. Please buy this book. Like all books from the New Press, it hits the mark.